Topical Studies
Bondage to Corruption
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Genesis 3:17 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
In God's curse, one three-word phrase makes all the difference: "for your sake." Modern translations render this phrase (be'abûr) "because of you" or "on your account," attempting to show that the ground's curse came as a result of Adam's sin. However, God had already given the reasons for the curse earlier in the verse, so why need He repeat it? "For your sake," while including the idea of "because of you," brings out another nuance that the modern renderings leave out. Since man would be cut off from God and His Holy Spirit, the ground would be cursed for man's sake, that is, for his benefit, advantage, or good. As with all acts of God, the perfect standard of goodness, the curse on Adam would do mankind "good in the end" (Deuteronomy 8:16), although its initial manifestations would entail hardship, toil, and privation. How can such a curse—with such long-lasting and harsh consequences—be good? Paul comments on this in Romans 8:19-22: For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. The apostle says here that God pronounced the curse on the creation "in hope" of "the revealing of the sons of God," which would release it "from the bondage of corruption." God designed the curse on Adam to enhance man's chance to enter His Family! God would rather have done it another way—through His guidance in the Garden of Eden—but since Adam and Eve chose rebellion, He designed Adam's curse to reach the same end by a different means: hard toil, struggle, and eventual death!
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The First Prophecy (Part Three)
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Romans 8:19-22 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The apostle says here that God pronounced the curse on the creation "in hope" of "the revealing of the sons of God," which would release it "from the bondage of corruption." God designed the curse on Adam to enhance man's chance to enter His Family! God would rather have done it another way—through His guidance in the Garden of Eden—but since Adam and Eve chose rebellion, He designed Adam's curse to reach the same end by a different means: hard toil, struggle, and eventual death!
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The First Prophecy (Part Three)
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Romans 8:19-22 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
God's whole creation is enslaved in grievous bondage! This slavery, called by Paul "the bondage of corruption," is subjection to decay, devastation, disease, destruction, and degradation because of sin—mankind's sin. The earth and all its creatures are expectantly waiting for the time when God's sinless children will take over the rule of this world and deliver creation from the curse of sin! And like a human birth, the worst pains—in this case, the worst ecological devastation—will occur just before and at the delivery of the new life. This explains the earth's groaning and laboring as the end nears.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Bible and the Environment
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Romans 8:19-22 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
We shall be delivered from this world (the church is in, though not of, this world) into the glorious world tomorrow and the Kingdom that shall rule it. The creation is waiting for this time of Christ's coming, the resurrection, and the Kingdom of God, because the creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption or deteriorated decay. It is not now delivered. It shall be—at the resurrection. Although this is not referring directly to our being born again, it is a direct comparison to the birth of a child being delivered from its mother's womb. The resurrection—the time when we are changed to be Spirit and to inherit the Kingdom will be a time of delivery from the bondage of corruptible flesh and from this world of sin—a real birth!
Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)
Life After Death?
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Galatians 4:3 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Who is "we"? When Paul uses "we" in this kind of context, it means church members, Christians—those of us who are brothers and sisters in the household of God. All of us—Israelite, Gentile, it does not matter who—have been in bondage to Satan and his demons to some extent, some more than others. All of us have been his slaves to varying degrees.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 23)
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